House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) is seeking answers from a Biden administration official for allegedly spending most of her work hours somewhere else, not in her Washington office.
It was one of several investigative moves the panel is pushing forward after GOP took control of the House, pledging tougher oversight of the Biden administration.
“We have received whistleblower reports you have spent most of your time working in a location other than Washington D.C during your tenure as GSA administrator,” Comer wrote in a Jan. 11 letter, without detailing the allegations levied. “We are writing to determine whether these reports are accurate, and if so, understand the reason behind routine absences and whether they are in compliance with relevant regulations.”
Before being sworn into the agency that is responsible for managing federal office space, Carnahan vowed in 2021 to modernize government digital infrastructure and deemed it “a very big deal” for federal agencies to rethink their long-term office needs.
Comer requested Carnahan provide work-related records no later than Jan. 25, including her daily calendar, the number of days physically presenting in Washington, and travel reimbursement requests she has submitted to date as the GSA administrator.
“If the intent of President Biden’s statement was to encourage Americans to return to the office by leading by example, agency leadership must work in-person as well,” Comer said to Carnahan in his letter.
SHOW UP Act
Comer also introduced a bill on Wednesday, called the SHOW UP Act, to prevent the Biden administration from cementing pandemic-era remote work policies for federal employees.“The federal government exists to serve the American people and these substantial delays for basic services are unacceptable,” the congressman added. He argued that expanding telework during the COVID-19 pandemic has led to massive backlogs and delayed critical assistance to veterans, tax refunds, passport applications, and other basic services.
If enacted, each federal agency will be forced to reinstate telework policies that were in place pre-pandemic within 30 days. It also calls for agency heads to submit individual studies in six months on “the impacts on the agency and its mission of expanding telework” and how such a move has affected performance.
Original co-sponsors of the bill include Reps. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), and Michael Cloud (R-Texas).
Even if the measure is passed in the House, prospects of its passage in the Democratic-controlled Senate remain uncertain, given some Democrats’ enthusiasm for expanding telework for federal employees, arguing that the policy leads to higher productivity and employee satisfaction with less traffic and air pollution.
The Epoch Times has reached out to Carnahan’s office for comment.